Brooklyn Moors battled a traditional case of the yips. Name it a hurdle to leap over or an impediment to beat — the Canadian graduate pupil mentioned she couldn’t “flip backward.”
“It’s tough because if you haven’t been through a mental block, such as going backward in gymnastics, it’s very hard to understand,” Moors mentioned.
Enter the Bruins’ new beam coach, Lacy Dagen. Three weeks into the 2025 marketing campaign, Moors is now comfortably executing the again handspring as part of her beam collection, incomes co-Huge Ten Occasion Specialist of the Week honors, and No. 8 UCLA gymnastics — a crew historically identified for its aptitude on flooring, not beam — is third-ranked within the occasion heading into Saturday afternoon’s residence opener towards Illinois.
“Lacy was honestly the best decision to this team we could have ever even had,” mentioned Moors, who scored a season-high 9.850 on beam final week en path to the perfect beam rating within the nation to date: 49.550. “We trust her for everything. She trusts us, and we built this great connection. I love going to beam every day — never thought I’d say that.”
It wasn’t too way back that Dagen was a university gymnast, squaring off towards the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion. Whether or not it was when coach Janelle McDonald first met Dagen a youngster in membership gymnastics or when Dagen was a student-athlete for Oregon State — as a beam and vault specialist who graduated in 2021 — McDonald stored an eye fixed on Dagen’s constructing achievements.
Dagen helped United States gold medalist Jade Carey succeed on beam as a volunteer coach with the Beavers in 2023, and a 12 months later helped Arizona State safe a top-20 rating on beam as an assistant at Arizona State.
When UCLA had a gap for a brand new coach, McDonald turned to the 27-year-old to fill the position.
“She has a lot of experience as a student-athlete, and we were really excited to bring that in because I felt like she’s really relatable,” McDonald mentioned. “[Beam has] become a really high energy, but also competitive workout on beam for us. I think that’s really what we were missing with our consistency last year, is just having that energy where they’re fighting for the spot in the lineup.”
UCLA’s Brooklyn Moors competes on the steadiness beam throughout a meet in Las Vegas on Jan. 6.
(Stew Milne / Related Press)
For the reason that Bruins’ rocky season opener in Oceanside, when UCLA scored their lowest complete crew rating since McDonald took over as head coach, solely two routines have been scored beneath 9.850 on beam. Seven of these 12 routines sit at 9.900 or greater, with senior Emma Malabuyo’s 9.975 towards Maryland rating as UCLA’s highest particular person rating on the occasion.
Moors pointed to Dagen as a help system for her on beam as she works on overcoming her psychological blocks and serving to the crew alter to Huge Ten journey. However Moors has additionally change into a help system for others on the crew, gaining a brand new title on the crew: “Mom.”
“They call me the mom,” Moors mentioned of the five-gymnast freshman class. “They’re all like my little sisters, or my children… I’ll do anything I can, whether it’s on a really hard day, or anything in and out of the gym — any advice I could give them — all I want to do is pass on all of my knowledge to them so they can lead the team for the next years to come.”
The freshman class highlighted by Macy McGowan, competing in three occasions in any respect three meets, might see elevated inclusion in lineups because the Bruins transfer from street meets to the friendlier confines of Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA additionally introduced on Wednesday that Saturday’s meet may have a larger function. UCLA Well being is masking greater than 1,000 tickets for folks affected by the Southern California fires and for first responders.
The crew wore black and purple ribbons final week to represent help for the Los Angeles Hearth Division and Los Angeles County Hearth Division. Two weeks in the past, 4 days after the Palisades and Eaton fires started, UCLA gymnasts flashed “LA” hand indicators after each routine.
Junior Clara Wren’s father is a former L.A. County Hearth Division fireplace captain.
“We wanted to do something as far as making sure that we can try to bring joy to our community,” McDonald mentioned. “Being able to give tickets in a time that’s pretty tough for people could put a smile on their faces and help them have a great time and hopefully enjoy the show.”
